Although there have been improvements on the quality in the color images obtained with silver halide color photographic light-sensitive materials, there is a need for further improvement. The quality of the color image is determined by various performance characteristics such as gradation reproduction, color reproduction, graininess, and sharpness. Among them, color reproduction and sharpness are the important factors that exert an influence upon the visual sharpness of an image. Additionally, there is a need to improve expression at details and the above factors themselves. Further, with color print materials, it is desired from the viewpoint of the recording medium part thereof that it is kept unchanged without deterioration even after storing at various conditions over a long period of time.
In order to improve color reproduction, improvements have been attempted in the spectral absorption characteristics of the yellow, magenta and cyan dyes each formed from a coupler by coupling with the oxidation-product of a developing agent. The cyan couplers mentioned below have been investigated for the purpose of improving the spectral absorption characteristics of the cyan dye. That is, there have been investigated the diphenylimidazole series couplers described in JP-A-2-33144 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an unexamined Japanese patent application), the 3-hydroxypyridine series couplers described in European Patent EP 0,333,185, the cyclic active methylene series cyan couplers described in JP-A-64-32260, the pyrrolo-pyrazole type cyan couplers described in European Patent EP 0,456,226, the pyrroloimidazole type cyan couplers described in European Patent EP 0,488,909, and the pyrroloazole type cyan couplers described in European Patents EP 0,488,248 and EP 0,491,197.
Meanwhile, several attempts have been made in order to improve image sharpness. In order to obtain an image having a high sharpness, a measure must be taken so that light of an exposure is not spread over a wide range on the print face to generate fading. There are known as the method for the prevention of this spreading, a method in which a water soluble dye is used in order to prevent irradiation generated on an emulsion layer provided on a support, a method in which a coloring layer (AH) is provided in order to prevent halation, and a method in which the reflection rate is raised in the vicinity of the surface on a reflection type support in order to prevent a blur in the support.
Of these methods, there is described a method for preventing a blur in JP-A-3-156439, a method in which a white pigment is incorporated into a waterproof resin layer covering a reflection type support in a proportion of 14% or more. Further, there is described in JP-A-57-64235 and JP-A-62-187846, a method in which a hydrophilic colloid layer containing a white pigment is provided between a support and a silver halide emulsion layer. However, it has been found that the application of the supports provided with these white pigments accelerates the yellowing of the background and the discoloring and fading of the cyan dye image when a color print processed and obtained is stored under the condition of high humidity.
Further, also in the methods in which a water soluble dye or AH is used, the use of a lot of dyes or an increase in the amount of coloring matter in AH in order to obtain a high sharpness, leads to the problems that a coloring agent remains without completely decoloring during processing to stain the background and that an image storing performance is deteriorated after processing.
Thus, there is no technology by which the sharpness of an image is increased and the yellowing of the background and the discoloring and fading of a dye image after a processing can be prevented. Accordingly the development of a new technology has been desired.